Britons ‘set their hotel alight as they tried to burn pal’s feet’
(Doesn’t it make you so proud of our young ambassadors?)
FOUR young Britons were marched into a Spanish court accused of starting a major fire in a holiday hotel after a drunken prank allegedly involving a lighter and an aerosol.
They were said to have been trying to wake a friend by burning his feet with the makeshift flamethrower.
But it is understood a mattress ignited, starting a blaze that forced 100 hotel guests on two floors to flee.
Firemen had to rescue several guests left stranded on balconies at the hotel in Magaluf on the island of Majorca. The final bill for the prank, including lost bookings and compensation for other guests, is likely to exceed £175,000, officials estimated.
Brandon McCahill and James Brown, both 21, and Lauren Smith and Georgia James, both 19, all from the north-east of England, looked sullen as they appeared in court in Majorcan capital Palma on Tuesday.
No one was seriously injured in the fire but several people, including three Civil Guard officers, were treated for smoke inhalation. Footage from the scene showed guests running for their lives, screaming to others to ‘get out’, as flames and black smoke engulfed rooms. It took around an hour to put the fire out.
The four defendants claimed they were on the balcony at the BH Mallorca Hotel when the room began to burn, local papers reported.
They said that they only found out it was on fire when they heard a woman screaming. On Tuesday a court banned the four from leaving the island until they put up £26,300 (30,000 euros) in bail between them. Their passports were also confiscated.
They were taken into court in handcuffs and what are believed to be the same clothes they were wearing when arrested. The slogan on McCahill’s shirt read ‘dope drugs’.
His mother Patricia Hutchinson, 59, said at her home in Consett, County Durham: ‘I haven’t heard anything about what they are supposed to have done.
‘It’s lucky they weren’t all killed after what happened. I’m just waiting by the phone for news.’
McCahill is a keen amateur footballer from Consett, now thought to be living in Newcastle. One of his recent Facebook posts, titled ‘Ahhh living the life’, shows a man lying face-down on the floor with his bottom exposed.
Smith, of Durham, had a job at a bakery with her mother, according to her Facebook page. James, also from the cathedral city, works at an Italian restaurant.
Brown works as a sales assistant while studying a business management degree at Northumbria University, Newcastle. He is also from Consett.
Last night footage emerged of McCahill using a lighter and an aerosol as a makeshift flamethrower after a party in 2016. A friend told The Sun: ‘Brandon is the joker of our group, but I didn’t think he’d go that far. He was out there with a few others on a lads’ holiday.’
A criminal investigation will take place before a decision is taken on whether the Britons should face charges.
A spokesman for the Civil Guard said: ‘More than 100 guests were evacuated after firefighters realised their lives were in real danger. Experts are still evaluating the cost but it will be in excess of 200,000 euros.’
‘Lucky they weren’t killed’